Beyond the Lecture: Nicholas Eberstadt on Men without Work

On this episode of "Beyond the Lecture," we sat down with political scientist Nicholas Eberstadt to discuss the origins and causes of the decline of work for American men. "Men without Work" is the title Eberstadt’s latest book. It’s about the radical decline in employment of working age American men over the past half-century. This worrying trend is not about a lack of available jobs, however. It evidences instead something even more worrisome: a decline in skilled labor, mass exits from the labor force, opioid addiction, and the resulting lack of motivation to work at all. Eberstadt is the Henry Wendt Chair in Political Economy at the American Enterprise Institute, in Washington, DC, and a senior adviser to the National Bureau of Asian Research. A Bosch Fellow in Public Policy at the American Academy in 2008, he was back in early November as the Kurt Viermetz Distinguished Visitor. Host: R. Jay Magill Photo: Ralph K. Penno